In case any of you missed my first experience bottling butter, check it out before reading the rest of this post. I’ll wait . . . Okay, back now? So the two main problems with bottling butter were 1-not high enough temperature to kill botulism spores, and 2-jar lids did not seal completely even though […]
Sprouted Wheat Experiment
I had heard from a very reputable source in the food storage community that if you stored your wheat/beans/seeds in cans or buckets and used the oxygen absorber packets it would kill the germination ability of the seed and make it so it would not sprout. Well, knowing how important it is to be able […]
Making Gravy from a Liquid
Gravy is a necessity with meat at my house and there’s a couple of ways to make it. Today we’ll do the liquid based method (usually results in clear gravy depending on what you add to it), another day we’ll do the fat based method (these are usually the cream/white style gravy). Step 1: Get […]
Used vs. New Canning Lids
Here’s a quick post to answer a question my sister had: How can you tell the difference between used and new canning lids? There are a few ways to tell. First, the new ones are in a box and second, the used ones have the date sharpied on them :) However, if you used lids […]
The Prepper Yard Sale or Thrift Store Shopping List
I love shopping at yard sales and thrift stores, and when I find one, I’m on the lookout for gear to help my preparedness efforts. Because most of the items you’ll find are used, always check the item’s condition well before buying. A $3.00 backpacking stove is useless if it doesn’t work. You never know […]
Finished the Elk and Other Stuff
I know you all are laughing, but it seriously took me until the 27th to be totally finished with that crazy elk! We kept it cold in a cooler outside (well, mostly frozen actually) for a while, then moved a leg or sack of meat in at a time and worked on it. It usually […]
Still Going
Okay, it’s been over a week and I’m still not done with the elk–as much as I love the meat I really just want to snuggle up in a blanket, watch a Christmas movie and drink hot cocoa. Yeah, with mini marshmallows in it . . . the real ones, not the crispy little dried […]
Homemade Noodles and Chicken Noodle Soup
Had a turkey carcass from Thanksgiving that we ate most of the meat off of and it was just taking up space in the fridge, so into the soup it goes! First I got all the meat off the turkey by putting what was left of the bird into my pressure canner pot with about […]
Applesauce
I’ll be honest with you all here. I’m no applesauce expert. I once made applesauce that was really good with jonathan and gala apples, and I’ve used golden delicious also and it’s not bad, but there was more flavor with the gala/jonathan mix. In my life now, I’ve made a whole 3 batches of applesauce. […]
Storing Jars
When I’ve eaten the fantastic food (well, most of the time it’s fantastic) out of my canning jars and washed them out, it’s time to store them until I need to can something else. I like to wash the used lid and ring along with the jar and then put the clean lid UPSIDE DOWN […]